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C M von Webers Polonaise brillante, S367

Introduction

Liszt’s concertante version of Weber’s Polonaise brillante also exists in a version for solo piano (S455) and that version needs to be consulted in conjunction with the orchestral score to achieve Liszt’s preferred solo part, some of whose alternative passages are missing in the score, as they are in the published reduction for two pianos, made by Pflughaupt. Otherwise the piece is very straightforward, and Liszt’s title simply describes the music as ‘für Pianoforte und Orchester instrumentiert’. The dedication is to Adolph Henselt, whose concert edition of the original solo Liszt much admired. The introduction employs the opening of Weber’s Grande Polonaise, Op 21, transposed up a semitone, and continues with forty bars of fantasy upon themes of the polonaise which is to come. Then, apart from the occasional embellishment, things proceed in a similar manner to the original until the coda, which Liszt extends by just a few bars. The orchestration is entirely in keeping with Weber’s style, too, and the neglect of this attractive piece in any of its guises is unaccountable.

Recordings

'Exemplary, and superbly recorded' (BBC Music Magazine)'Howard's dedication is clear in all his playing here, with clear, crisp articulation vividly caught in finely balanced sound' (The Guardian)» More

Leslie Howard’s recordings of Liszt’s complete piano music, on 99 CDs, is one of the monumental achievements in the history of recorded music. Remarkable as much for its musicological research and scholarly rigour as for Howard’s Herculean piano p ...» More